Fieldwork
by Sarcastic-Bones
Summary: Jess takes Connors place in locking the anomaly in the field. It's fair to say, Becker is less than happy about the arrangement. Carnivores in a hospital and Jess to protect? Something was bound to go wrong... Kind of set like an episode. Jecker.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm knee-deep in ScoRose fic ideas and half written stories for them, but... when Primeval wants your attention, who are we to resist?**

**So I literally sat down and just... wrote this. It came from nowhere, and it wasn't going to be _anything_ like this (I think it was going to be a short, cute, fluffy one-shot set in the ARC, but I've written that, so I rather like this). It's different from my usual standard fluffy one-shots, but I hope you like it. Also, don't be put off by the fact that it's multi-chapter - it was either a _really_ long one-shot, or a short multi-chapter, so I did it in multi-form. Possibly 5 chapters, but I've written them all, so they'll be up quickly. :D**

**Anywaaaays, thank you for electing to read this! It's dedicated to all of you - every person in the Primeval Fandom**** on here, because you guys are seriously amazing. It's lovely to see that people who read my fics, and whose fics I read, read each others, making us a really awesome community. (Am I rambling? Sorry!) So, here it is: enjoy!**

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><p>Jess had been enjoying her day.<p>

It was cool in the hub of the ARC, the air conditioning keeping the open planned room from sweltering in the heat of the summer sun outside.

Jess had persuaded Lester - which wasn't hard considering she'd really just _told _him it was necessary - to let her uncover and open the large glass window behind the ADD, pointing out that nobody could see _inside _the secret headquarters and, even if they did, it would just look like a normal office. It wasn't like she was asking for the menagerie to be uncovered.

She was, therefore, sat curled up in a comfortable ball in her soft chair, playing Angry Birds on the huge ADD screen because there had not been an anomaly all week, she was, for once, up to date on the admin and - she had to admit - the prospect of watching Becker shuffle about the hub, organising provisions, tactics and weaponry for the army was just too pleasant to pass up.

Yes, she was aware that that made her a little sad and pathetic.

She sighed somewhat angrily at herself for being so pathetic and sat up in her chair, turning her attention away from the dark-haired soldier talking (arguing) to a technician across the room and back to the ADD, desperately searching for something to keep her busy. Angry Birds was becoming monotonous.

It was only three in the afternoon on a day in late spring, so the sun was still filtering through the window, illuminating the whole hub area. The other workers seemed invigorated by the increase in light and their moods seemed to lighten at the fact that they were no longer stuck working in a gloomy office.

Before Jess could pull up some files onto the screen, a voice by her ear made her start out of her seat a little.

"Slacking off?" He teased.

As she spun to face Becker, an expression of half-warning half-joking on her face, she realised that his face was dangerously close to her own.

It seemed that all of a sudden he did too, because, although his smirk remained in place, he pulled back sharply to lean on the wall beside her computer screen, crossing his arms over his chest and keeping his distance.

Jess quickly tapped a few keys on the keyboard, bringing up some work, then spun back to face him.

She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips in a pointed response.

He let out an unexpected laugh. "Okay, so you're… managing your time?"

"Exactly," Jess grinned back. "Which is more than I can say for you."

"_I've_ been organising the upcoming retraining expedition," He seemed proud of himself. "And I'm willing to bet you anything, Jess, that I've done more work than you today."

"Hey!" Jess complained, but smiled at his teasing. "I did work this morning. I'm… taking a break."

"So I can see," He teased again, pointedly looking her up and down to emphasise her relaxed position, the fact that her shoes were unbuckled and strewn across the floor. All the same, Jess couldn't help but blush - he might as well have been checking her out.

Which he was, but she didn't know that.

Jess tried to divert the conversation. "So, do you leave on Monday?"

"Yeah," Becker grinned, his whole face lighting up at the prospect of retraining current soldiers and new initiates. "I got Lester to agree to have the two week expedition abroad in the jungle - and I know you will anyway because you're so stubborn and curious, but don't ask which jungle because I'm not allowed to tell you."

Jess grinned, then the smile faded as suddenly as it had come when she took in his words. "T…Two weeks? In the jungle?"

She was aware her voice came out painfully quiet and small, but Becker apparently did not interpret it correctly.

"That's got to be your worst nightmare, Jess? Two whole weeks in the jungle without technology, or chocolate, or… shoes."

Now he was definitely teasing her to provoke a reaction.

Instead, Jess changed the direction of the conversation, tossing all thoughts of not speaking to one of her closest friends for two whole weeks from her mind.

_What if he got eaten by a giant spider or something?_

She suppressed a shudder.

"While I do admit that the jungle should have more time for shoe shopping," She began, crossing her own arms, "you are definitely wrong in one respect there, Becker."

His eyebrows creased. "Is that so?" He challenged, curious.

Jess turned back to the ADD, trying to avoid his eyes now. "You didn't quite get Lester to agree… I _may_ have suggested to a reluctant Lester that it was in his best interests to ensure that the security team at the ARC was the best it could be… you know, for the defence of his government employees, and the general public."

He didn't respond for a few long seconds, so Jess finally gave in and glanced at him.

He was leaning on the wall, in the same position he'd been standing in since he'd come over, arms crossed over his chest, head tilted at an angle. The only thing that had changed was his expression: he was staring at her with a hint of surprise in his eyes, and admiration, and respect, and thankfulness.

To be honest, it was an odd mixture of emotions. The only thing she was sure about was that he was suddenly looking at her intently.

"I…" She felt a little unnerved. "Was… was that okay? I mean, I didn't want to overstep or anything, but I just… I knew how important it was to you-to the team, so I figured… I could… oh god, I'm rambling, aren't I?"

She grimaced, causing Becker to smile.

Then, surprising her completely, he pulled away from the wall, crossed the short space to her in one step, and hugged her.

It was short, but Jess was aware how rare and _bizarre_ it also was for Becker to be hugging someone, especially in the middle of the hub - although, now she looked, she realised hardly anyone was around anyway.

"Thank you," He told her sincerely as he stepped away. Jess was painfully aware that her cheeks were blazing a violent red. "Seriously, Jessica, that's just… how about we… go out for drinks tonight, I'll pay, as a thank you?"

He looked her in the eye when he said it, stood firmly on both feet, but Jess knew him too well - the corner of his mouth twitched in nervousness.

_He was nervous! Nervous to ask you out, Jess! No, not ask 'out', as such, just… for drinks. Like friends._

_Like friends, but maybe not __**as**__ friends._

"I… yeah, of course, that sounds… nice," She managed to breathe back in reply.

Then the anomaly alarm interrupted them.

"Guess there's no slacking off for us now," Becker muttered dryly, then he stalked off to gather up his men.

The hub was chaos, and Jess was completely preoccupied with GPS tracking, satellites and hacking into CCTV for five minutes.

When she next blinked back to the reality of the hub it was because Abby, Connor, Matt and Emily were heading out. They'd already acquired EMDs but rushed past to collect black boxes, Abby and Emily calling a goodbye, Matt instructing her to keep them up to date (to which she responded with a very Becker-like sarcastic comment), and Connor calling a stupid aside about asking her to use the ADD system to hack into their Sky box and put The 50 Best Star Wars Moments on record because it was likely they were going to miss it that evening.

Just as Connor reached the doorway, Lester emerged from his office and called him back.

"Connor!" He sounded like a father reprimanding his son. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Err, to fight dinosaurs?" He asked hesitantly.

"And how did you imagine you'd be able to do that without field-work clearance?" Lester sighed.

"Err, I…"

"Jess," Lester interrupted him abruptly but not unkindly, "swap placed with Connor. You said the anomaly's viable to interference from the hospital's radiology machines, so we need one of you there. Heaven knows at least _one_ person needs to be capable of stopping vicious rampaging creatures from coming through that anomaly. The paperwork would be a nightmare."

"Wait," Jess and Connor were still staring at each other in surprise, but Lester, completely ignoring the unusual nature of his request, had made to turn back to his office. Jess's voice stopped him. "I… swap places with Connor? In the field? _Actual_ site work?"

Lester's eyebrows creased a little as he glanced between the two of them rather lazily. "You've encountered creatures before, and you've got clearance… Is there a problem?"

"Nope."

"No," they both responded quickly, then swapped places. Connor took up Jess's seat at the ADD whilst Jess, buckling her heels as quickly as possible and picking up her own black box, joined the others by the door. Jess gave Connor one last apologetic look as he handed over his EMD, and Abby shot him a sympathetic one, then the team hurried to their cars.

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><p><strong>This is setting the scene mostly, but I'd love a review to see what you think of it so far, and what you think is going to happen? If you can't be bothered to wait for the chapters as they are posted, I'd be forever grateful if you checked back in, like, four days when it's all uploaded?<strong>

**Thank you all! Much love, Kerry. x**


	2. Chapter 2

**You guys! You're so so so nice to me! :D Thank you all for reviewing the first chapter! I hope you enjoy this one, and don't worry YouHaveLovelyHair, Jess totally adresses the running-from-monsters-in-heels thing. :D**

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><p>"Shoot," Jess mumbled under her breath. "Why do these buckles hate me?"<p>

Abby laughed from the drivers seat beside her whilst Emily and Matt shared a grin.

"How exactly are you expecting to run away from, what could well be a T-rex, in those shoes?" Emily asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Simple," Jess replied. "I could run a marathon in heels, Emily. Besides, I plan on hanging back and letting you guys do all the chasing and running and whatnot. If it comes down to it I'll use the EMD, but only if I have to."

"That sounds… best," Abby laughed again.

"God forbid we hurt the precious Jessica," Connor's voice reached them all through their comms. The others laughed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jess asked, confused and sensing that Connor's had been a loaded statement.

Jess didn't miss the cautious, and amused, glance Abby shared with Matt through the mirror.

"Let's just say…" Abby started.

"That the big man in charge with the large gun might just track us down as shoot us with the most high powered EMD he can find," Connor finished.

Jess felt her cheeks blush a little. "Becker wouldn't do that…" She mumbled pathetically.

"Wouldn't do what?" His voice through the comms made them all flinch.

"Nothing," they all chorused together.

They drove in silence the rest of the way.

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><p>The hospital was huge: one of only a couple in the country which employed experts in specialist departments and had every department imaginable.<p>

When they pulled up to the A&E bay, hoards of people well enough had been escorted outside and behind police lines to temporary monitoring tents. Becker's black SUV was parked at a terribly inconvenient angle, evidently suggesting that he'd just pulled to a halt and hurried out without much regard for parking.

Jess allowed herself a moment to rebuke him in her head.

_He should add safe parking to his list of tasks on the field clearance test._

They'd hardly finished stepping out of their own car when he appeared from the A&E exit and marched over to Matt, giving orders to a few soldiers who hurried off. He turned to the team as he reached them.

"Perimeter's secure, most of those we could get out we have, but there's still some patients in there, in the ICU or who are just too unstable to move. As far as we can tell, the anomaly is somewhere between the seventh and ninth floor, so most likely radiology, as Jess thought. The hospital staff estimate about twenty unmovable patients still inside, plus three site staff. Those wards have been quarantined until we get the anomaly under control, but luckily they're floors eleven and above."

"And the creature?" Abby asked.

Becker turned to her, adjusting the comms piece in his ear. "Hopefully within the quarantine between floors seven and nine. A couple of people remember seeing something large and dark stalk down one corridor, but they didn't get a proper look-"

"-Thankfully-"

"The only thing we have to go off of is that it's carnivorous - three nurses were attacked: one dead, one seriously injured, the other is being treated so we still don't have her statement yet."

"We need to get that anomaly locked," Emily commented.

"On it," Jess replied readily, portable ADD in hand, comms in her ear, as she took a step towards the building.

This was her area of expertise, and she knew it was all down to her to reach the anomaly and lock it.

"Whoa, hold on," Becker's hand was suddenly on her shoulder and he'd taken a step to be between her and the A&E doorway. "Why's Jess here? Where's Connor?"

"It's a whole 'health and safety' thing," Emily told him.

"As in, it's not safe for the rest of us if Connor's here," Abby joked.

"Until he passes his field-work test," Matt remained on point.

Becker swore. "I told him he would have to resubmit six weeks ago. I _said_ his psych and physical tests from when you came back from the Cretaceous would expire. Why doesn't he ever listen?"

"It's Connor," Abby sighed, evidently agreeing from experience.

"He _never _listens, Becker," Jess tried to reason with him. "So I'm the on-site genius. Now let me passed. Radiology is going to be messing with that anomaly - it could be pretty difficult to close."

"No," He said as if it was preposterous.

"Becker…"

"No. You think I'm going to let you go in there?" His tone evidently suggested that he thought the idea was ridiculous.

"Be-"

"_No_, Jessica," He stated firmly, shifting the gun in his hands and his weight on his feet. "You shouldn't be here. It's too dangerous."

Jess was vaguely aware of Abby smirking beside them, of Emily watching their relationship curiously, and of Matt seeming rather bored.

"I'm cleared for field-work. Now move out of the way, Becker."

"No."

"But _you're_ the one who cleared me!"

"Well you aced my test," He muttered reluctantly, "and I didn't think you'd actually need the clearance - so _no_."

Jess frowned. He was really starting to annoy her now. She wasn't _completely_ incompetent, she could look after herself. She had a gun, didn't she?

She tried to step round him, made it half a step forwards and to the side, before his body blocked hers again.

"Becker," She growled, all hint of amusement or patience gone now. "Move out of the way."

"No."

"_Now._"

"No," He raised one perfect eyebrow, almost inviting her to challenge it.

"I'm not asking for your permission, _Captain_," She mocked a little harsher than normal.

"I'm not-"

"_Hils_?"

Their rapid back-and-forth argument was cut across by the shocked voice of a woman exiting one of the A&E tents as she was led towards the back of an ambulance, a foil emergency blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

They all, including Matt, Abby and Emily, turned to face the arrival.

Becker lowered the gun completely into one hand, but was evidently too surprised to move from the close proximity he and Jess had found themselves in.

"Tami?" Becker questioned back. A second later the woman was hurrying towards them, and then she'd flung her arms around him. Becker had to take a step back, and away from Jess, to hold her weight. "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

The woman pulled away, her dark hair flying all over her face. As she pushed the strands behind her ears, her facial features were exposed and Jess suddenly knew who she was without asking.

"Certainly not looking for my brother," She half teased, but she was obviously still shaken up as her voice wavered a little. "Or looking to be attacked by some… _thing_."

"You saw it?" Becker asked suddenly, tearing his gaze away from inspecting the cuts on her forehead.

Tami shook her head a little. "No… well, yes, but not… not enough. I… it didn't look like anything I'd seen before. It was… like two feet tall, and… kind of like a bird…" Tami turned her eyes on the others, avoiding her brothers worried gaze. "I know that sounds crazy but that was what I saw. It was like… like a raptor - you know, from _Jurassic Park_."

"Late Jurassic, to be exact," Connor's voice crackled over the radio into their ears. Jess put her hand to her ear to better hear him. "And just as a point of interest, that film is _so _inaccurate - raptors were from the Cretaceous, not Jurassic. I mean, if anybody would know that it would be me and Ab-"

"Connor," Abby reprimanded him, trying to keep him on track.

"Right, sorry. As far as I can tell from that description and CCTV footage, we've got Saurornithoides, Jess. Theropods. About two metres in length. Dangerous. They usually hunt around dusk, so the light's gonna confuse them, probably agitate them. Luckily it's not too bright inside. Well, actually, they have pretty good night vision, so it's not exactly a win-win situation… Well, it is for _them _I guess. They're supposed to have eaten small animals, but… well, given the chance? I'd say humans looked pretty tasty. There's at least two, but there could be more, a lot more."

"Got it, Connor," Becker acknowledged his words, then he turned to the team, one arm protectively wrapped round his still shaken sister, who couldn't hear a word of what Connor was saying and was too preoccupied from shock to really be paying attention anyway. "We need to contain this thing _now_-"

"But we can't just go storming in there," Abby pointed out. "They can probably at least feel vibrations in movement if they can't hear us directly."

"Actually, Saurornithoides have pretty good hearing. Really good," Connor corrected her.

"We go storming into that building, they could panic," Abby continued.

"We don't have time to narrow down the area and round them up slowly and cautiously," Matt argued. "We at least need to get that anomaly closed, then we track the remaining ones down, find out how many there are, and get them sedated and back through the anomaly. Chances are they _are_ in the quarantined floors, but if not… the ground floors have been sealed off, and the creatures are unlikely to travel up two floors when there's six more below them and the sound of prey outside attracting them downwards."

"Okay Abby, do you think you could crawl through the vents like you did that one time before?" Emily asked her.

"How do you know about that?"

"I read all the files," Emily shrugged. At their confused expressions she elaborated, "Matt doesn't have any good books. I had to find something to do."

"So… do you, Abby?" Becker pressed. Jess was acutely aware of his thumb rubbing soothing circles on his sisters upper arm.

However, she was even more aware of the most straightforward plan of action.

"It would take too long," Abby sighed, admitting defeat on that plan. "I haven't seen plans of the venting system, and even if I had, they're likely to be complex, and narrow tubing. Hardly enough space for me, Jess and someone with a gun. Plus, I haven't got the first clue about how to set up the locking device Connor made."

Emily sighed, and Becker cursed again. Jess spared a moment to smile at the way Becker's sister reprimanded him for his poor language, then she took the opportunity to speak up.

"Or… I could just… go in."

Five pairs of eyes stared at her in surprise. One out-angered the emotions from the rest.

"Jess-"

"Hear me out, okay," She addressed them all. "We need to send in as little amount of people as we can to avoid panicking the creatures, but we _need_ to lock that anomaly. _I_ need to go in case there's issues with the radio frequency interfering with the locking device. So send me in, it kills two birds with one stone."

"It's too dangerous," Matt argued, to Jess's dismay.

"I'm armed."

"You're in four inch heels, Jess," Emily pointed out.

"I _live_ in four inch heels, Em," Jess told her truthfully. "That's why I don't like the jungle," She teased Becker. His lips quivered, but he was too overcome with anxiety, anger, fear to smile.

"You are not going in on your own, Jessica," Becker stated firmly. On an ordinary day, nobody would argue, but Jess was here today, and she knew she was right.

"How about this," Matt cut across her as she opened her mouth to protest. "I go in with Jess. Two guns, two people. You can stay here and be backup, and if that fails… Becker, your men can storm the building."

"No way," Becker shook his head again and, by now, his sister had begun to realise that he was being overly protective. She seemed to forget the events of the day, and was now more focused on whether or not she had cause to tease her brother later.

"It's a good idea," Abby conceded.

"I'll protect her, Becker," Matt promised quietly, even though they were standing in a tight enough circle for everyone to hear anyway.

Becker stared at them all for a moment, then was roused into action by the arrival of an SUV of second unit soldiers. They hadn't even been on scene for more than five minutes, yet it felt to Jess like they'd delayed for hours already.

Becker's shoulders stiffened, he unhooked his arm from around his sister, shouldered his gun and then turned to Jess.

"No, I'm going with her," He spoke to Matt sternly, then his voice and expression softened towards Jess as he leaned towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder so that she looked him directly in the eyes. "You come back with even a scratch on that pretty face of yours, and I will personally make sure you never get sent out into the field again. Do you understand me, Jessica?"

She sighed, crossing her arms in front of her. "Of course I understand, Becker. I'm the genius, remember?"

Becker actually cracked a brief smile at that.

Tami, momentarily frozen by Jess's boldness against her usually stern brother, blinked and placed a hand on Becker's arm, stalling them.

"You're not going in there, are you?" She asked, horrified. "That… whatever it was, it's vicious. I saw it kill one of my colleagues, Hils. You…"

"Tami, this is my job," He told her kindly. "I'll be fine."

"He's good at his job," Abby tried to comfort her, gesturing towards the coffee cart nearby. "They'll be in and out in fifteen minutes-"

"-Hopefully," Connor added helpfully to the conversation from across the comms.

"Why don't we get a cup of tea and you can tell me all about Becker before he became a soldier-robot."

As they wandered away, Matt and Becker turned to each other.

"If you're not out in twenty minutes, I'm coming in after you."

"Got it," Becker told him. "And Jess? Put this on."

He pulled off his protective vest - the EMD equivalent of a bullet-proof vest - and handed it to Jess. She looked like she was going to argue, but one glare from him shut her up. This, at least, she could do. For him.

Once she'd strapped the vest on, still warm from his body heat, and Becker had collected the locking device from the car, he gestured towards the A&E entry door.

"After you."

"So polite," She teased. He rolled his eyes.

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><p><strong>And so it begins... :)<strong>

**Just so you know, Tami's the same Tami from 'Siblings', just in alternate versions of that world, where this is the first time she meets Jess (and the rest of the team).**

**Next chapter will be up tomorrow, I promise (or earlier if I can't help myself... Lol)**

**What did you guys think? Ignore some of the kinks/loopholes - this is, after all, a shameless attempt to relive a little of the magic of Primeval whilst shoving Jess and Becker together. :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you all for the great feedback from last chapter. This one is action-y. I don't normally write anything past fluff, but I just loved writing this one - so let me know what you think?**

**Love you guys!**

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><p>She'd never really liked hospitals.<p>

She had brief, hazy memories of visiting them a lot when she was younger and her father had been involved in a car accident, breaking his neck. He'd had to remain under observation for a long time whilst the hospital used weights to ensure his bones grew back in the correct way and his spinal cord remained intact.

The corridors had been just as white, just as cold, just as nerve-wracking.

But definitely not as quiet.

It was eerie, stepping cautiously and quietly through the empty corridors, one incredibly slow step at a time.

Becker had told her they were going to take it slow. He insisted on going first round every corner - which she wasn't dumb enough to argue with - rifle EMD shouldered at the ready, military crouch perfected, movements timed and judged exactly to the millisecond.

She followed, stepping somewhat clumsily, but slowly, her head whipping from side to side or back down the corridors at every faint noise, clutching the small EMD in her hands for dear life.

Every patient from floors seven to nine had been evacuated - none of them were in critical condition - so that left them with three completely huge, completely empty floors to cover, looking for the anomaly.

They'd had to take the stairs - the lift wasn't safe, and even if it had been security had shut them down just in case.

"Stop," Becker whispered suddenly, firmly, his left hand coming up to signal his words.

Jess stopped immediately, understanding that this was _his_ domain, _his_ area of expertise. If she failed to listen, it could be more than her own life that she risked.

They came to a stop at the corner of a crossroads which led to an open area of corridor where the nurse's station was. Leaning on the wall to their right, Becker had surveyed the left corridor and apparently deemed it safe to continue on, and the right seemed to be posing no problem either.

But Jess didn't have to be a trained solider to realise the problem.

There was a noise coming from behind the curved desk: a grunting, snorting, scavenging noise which made the hairs on the back of Jess's neck stand on end. The animal - because it was definitely an animal - snorted again, and then a large reptilian-like tale darted out over the desk, sweeping a pile of paperwork onto the floor in one powerful movement.

Jess's heart hammered so hard in her chest she was afraid it could hear her. After all, the creature was only three meters away, at best.

Becker swallowed, and turned slightly to stare at her through the gloom. He didn't speak, or move, or try to push her back, he simply gave her one piercing look that said it all: don't do _anything_ unless I tell you to. Don't panic. Don't make a sound.

Jess was more than happy to oblige.

As the creature grunted again, lifting its head in a sharp motion which suggested it had evidently heard, smelt or sensed _something,_ Jess tried to be less aware of her incredibly slow breathing. Every exhale sounded a thousand times louder in the dense hospital.

The creature was like a bird crossed with a Velociraptor - the face was birdlike, with a kind of savage beak, but as it opened its mouth to snap at the light bulb on the wall in front of it, Jess was treated to the terrifying sight of its row of sharp, deadly teeth.

She was _incredibly_ glad Becker was with her.

He'd noticed something was wrong halfway down the corridor, she'd noticed once they'd reached the end - in simple, she would have noticed too late, the clacking of her heels would have given her away because she just knew she would have walked too quickly. She would probably be dead by now if it wasn't for him. Or running for her life.

And yes, she had thought about taking her shoes off, but they were relatively quiet for heels, the grip on the bottom creating a muffled effect, and if she had to run, she could do it a hundred times better in heels than in tights, or bare feet (or trainers for that matter - she found balance easier on her tiptoes). Becker had agreed - no sense in taking them off if they were going to be practically crawling through the hospital anyway, and hopefully _not_ encountering any creatures.

_Since when did anything at the ARC go to plan?_

_Actually, since when did they ever **have **plans?_

The creature, finished with the apparently unappetising light bulb, sniffed again, and its head jerked to the right, staring down at the corridor to their right - if it had looked over half a meter more, it would have seen them.

Becker, finally making a decision, ushered her back down the corridor slowly, and into the first room which joined the corridor.

He opened it extremely carefully - which also meant painfully slowly for Jess because she knew that whilst he was occupied, it was her job to be the lookout - and let her in first so that he could close it just as quietly behind them.

The room was tiny - hardly the size of Lester's office - but there was enough room for one bed, and a chair for a visitor.

Jess made to turn the light on, but Becker's deathly quiet _"No"_ stopped her.

So did the hand he used to grab her wrist.

She spun back to look at him in alarm, trying to apologise profusely for the _stupid_ thing she'd almost done. As soon as she got out of there, she was going to give herself a good talking to for that.

_Who tries to turn on the __**light?**_

The creature definitely would have noticed them if she had.

She had completely overestimated her ability to be in the field.

_How could she have been so stupid?_

_Pride_, she reminded herself. _Some genius she was._

"Stay here," Becker breathed, standing practically on her heels so that he didn't have to speak louder than necessary. She was suddenly aware of the proximity in which they were standing, acutely aware of the warmth of his body, and ridiculously concerned about it in a moment when she should be worried about other, more important things.

Like being mauled by a dinosaur.

Or closing a doorway through time.

"No," She breathed back, grabbing his upper arm for dear life. "We have to stay together."

"Jess-"

"No. Do you even have a plan? Or do you just think you can wing it better without me? And what are you going to do if you do reach the anomaly?" She pointed out, barely moving her lips. "Maybe we should go back, let the units round the creatures up with fire-power. If you shoot that one, the others will come running. They've got to be put back through anyway, no use in closing the anomaly with the terrifying, man-eating creatures on the wrong side, is there?"

Becker actually managed to roll his eyes, despite the situation. "Fine," He breathed. "We go together."

Instead of sighing to show her frustration at his answer, she mimed strangling him in irritation behind his back whilst he checked his EMD.

"Here's what we're going to do," He breathed, turning back to face her. "See that vent up there?"

She looked up and nodded.

"I'm going to help you up-"

"But Abby said-"

"She said it _could_ be narrow, but it most likely isn't that bad. Plus, we have the benefit of knowing the layout of this floor now, and we've checked half of it - the anomaly can only be to the west of the building."

"That's providing it's even on this floor," Jess pointed out in a whisper.

"Yes, thank you for that, Jessica," Becker breathed back sarcastically, half-joking.

Before she could comment, or argue some more, there was that dreadful, make-your-blood-run-cold sniff that only a predator could make from right outside the door. A shadow past under the doorframe.

Not tanking their eyes of the gap under the doorframe, Jess and Becker inhaled, and held their breath for thirty _long_ seconds, listening.

There was only silence.

Then the door handle shook violently and the door almost buckled under the weight thrown at it from the other side.

Frozen in fright, Jess thought she might die from fear and anticipation at that moment.

Becker responded differently: he was immediately roused into action, grabbing the chair beside them and swinging it into place under the vent as the rattling at the door became more insistent.

"Go, Jess, _now_!" There was no point in keeping his voice below a whisper now - any creature close enough to hear was already outside that door, attempting to barrel its way through at any moment.

Becker's hand on the small of her back practically pushed her onto the chair, but she wasn't going to take it personally at that moment.

Balancing on her heels, the rattling at the door bordering obscene now, Jess threw her arms up at the grate over the vent, shoving it further into the vent and to the side so that she could climb up. Just as it dawned on her that she didn't have anywhere _near_ the upper body strength to haul herself up, Becker lowered his weapon, stepped up onto the chair with her - once again with his body completely squashed up against her own - and pushed her in one swift movement towards the ceiling.

She latched her arms onto the side of the vent and hauled her body into the tunnel-like system, barely reaching (_Heels solve everything_, she thought to herself briefly), and barely having enough time to adjust her balance and catch the gun Becker shoved at her before he was pulling himself - with enormous effort - up to climb into the vent too.

The door rattled one last, forceful time, and then the catch snapped and two carnal Saurornithoides came scrambling desperately into the room, making a beeline straight for Becker.

Laying flat inside the ventilation system and pointing the barrel of the gun through the gap into the room and making sure she was aiming nowhere near a straining Becker, Jess locked on to one of the creatures as it leapt towards Becker's legs, sharp teeth ready to severe at least some arteries, and squeezed the trigger.

The creature shot back a meter or so, but gained its footing almost immediately. The other one kept coming, unperturbed.

"Becker!" Jess couldn't help herself. She hated it in movies when the girls screamed names at stupid moments - it wasn't helping one bit, if anything it just made the situation worse - but she couldn't stop the word from leaving her mouth. It was a reflex.

His shoulders and waist were through into the vent, taking up most of the vertical height, his face was straining from effort - even Becker had some limits. Jess scrambled backwards as far as she could - which only really amounted to an inch or two because the vent made a sharp plummet, and she wasn't going to go _back_ down.

She grabbed Becker's arm and tugged as hard as she could as the second Saurornithoides snapped for his leg.

It probably would have severed the whole thing if he hadn't hooked his elbow onto the floor of the vent and _hauled_ as hard as he could.

So instead of losing a leg, Becker squashed Jess and almost lost an eye with its proximity to the barrel of his own gun which Jess had flailed about in her left hand as he landed on her.

"Ouch," She mumbled as their foreheads collided.

"'_Ouch'_?" He asked, exasperated. He braced his arms either side of her face so that he wasn't squashing her so much, but there wasn't much room for him to retreat. Their faces were still only an inch apart, and their bodies were still very much condensed together.

She gave him a sheepish grin. "Are you okay?"

"Now that I'm not in danger of being mauled to death by a prehistoric dinosaur? Oh, absolutely brilliant."

"So… do you think you could get off me please?" She asked sheepishly, trying to make the question less awkward than it was, but failing miserably.

He, for once, didn't respond defensively but did as she said, scrabbling backwards towards where their feet were and managing to sit up on his heels, so long as he leaned forwards and ducked somewhat. Jess handed him his gun, then he helped her to a sitting position too.

By unspoken agreement, they both turned to the vent gap behind Becker which was no more than half a meter wide. Very clearly below them was the room they had just been in, the chair directly underneath the meter and a half gap to the floor.

The three Saurornithoides - because a younger one had now joined them - snapped at each other, at them, at the chair, at everything really, as one tried to scramble onto the chair. The other two contented themselves with jumping as high as they could towards the human meal they could see just out of their reach.

Without hesitating, Becker swung his EMD into the gap, aimed it at the chair, and fired. The metal chair went flying violently, toppling over and taking one of the Saurornithoides that had half-climbed onto it with it.

Becker turned to Jess. "We need to get going. The anomaly _has_ to be this way, and we better close it before Matt and the others come charging to the rescue. Those things are dangerous, and I'd rather not put any more of my men at risk than necessary by leaving the way open for more of them."

Jess nodded, the adrenaline in her system slowly dissipating, slowly being replaced by shock.

"We're going to have to crawl over this gap," Becker told her gently, but firmly, making sure she was listening and understood. "Do you still have the portable locking device?"

Jess nodded again, and figured it was probably more reassuring that she wasn't going into shock if she could speak. Her voice cracked though. "Y-Yes… it's on the belt Abby gave me."

She gestured towards it, her hands shaking, and Becker nodded, thankful.

"Okay, I'm going to hop across, and then you're just going to copy, okay? I'll be right there to catch you just in case," He tried to reassure her, even cracking out a small smile. She looked at him through the gloom of the vent and nodded, but her eyes didn't focus. Becker tilted her chin with his left hand until she was looking right into his eyes - she couldn't exactly miss from the inch between them. "I'm not going to let _anything_ happen to you, Jessica," He told her sincerely.

She swallowed, finally comprehending his words, and nodded.

* * *

><p><strong>Next bit coming soon! There's less banter in this, because I simply couldn't fit it in, but there should be more coming next. I hope you liked this, please let me know your thoughts? :D<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm glad you guys are enjoying this. :) Here's chapter 4, hope you like it! :D I think there's one more chapter to go after this.  
><strong>

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><p>They crawled through the vents until they reached the western-most point, then Becker gestured that they were going to take the right turn.<p>

"I can see a light," He whispered.

"Flickering?"

"Yes," He responded slowly as he edged towards the next grate. "It's the anomaly."

Jess let out a thankful breath. "Thank god."

"There doesn't appear to be any creatures in there, so I'm going to drop down and secure the room. Can you get on the comms to Connor and the others and let them know we've located it?"

"On it," She said happily, finally glad something was going to plan.

Until all she heard was static.

Becker made to lower himself into the room, but Jess's hand on his arm and her hiss of "_Becker_" stopped him immediately.

"What is it?" He asked, immediately worried. Her scanned her face and arms for any sign of innjury or that something was wrong.

Her words pulled his gaze right back to hers. "The comms are down. It must be the anomaly interference. That's never happened before..."

She looked worried, so Becker decided he should try to at least _sound _like he had a plan. "Think of it in a positive way - at least Connor's not yapping in our ears."

She cracked a small smile, but was still unnerved by the news. The comms had always worked before, and they were always a way for her to communicate with the team, no matter what. They were security, safety, and peace of mind for her back at the ARC with only the computer to keep her informed. "We've got a plan to stick to. We'll lock it and then get out. It'll be fine, stop worrying."

"I'm not _worrying_," She huffed back defensively, folding her arms across her chest.

Becker simply raised his eyebrows sceptically. "You _stay here_, Jessica. Do _not_ move unless I tell you too, okay?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Where else am I going to _go_, Becker?" She pointed out, pleased with her answer.

"Right," he had to concede.

And with that he dropped down into the hospital room below, landing deathly silently, gun raised and aimed at the open doorway. Jess positioned herself so that she was laying on her stomach with her head poking through the vent gap into the room below, pointing her own EMD at the doorway just in case as Becker turned to securing the room.

It was about five times larger than the other one, and it held an MRI scanner. The anomaly covered the entrance to the scanner on the opposite side of the room to the door.

Becker checked every corner and crevice, then crossed to the door. There was a terrifying second in which he disappeared completely from her sight, but then he was back, closing the door and locking it.

He turned to her, lowering his EMD.

"You can come down now," He told her.

"Err, Becker?" She swung her legs into the gap, then considered the four metre jump. "Do you think…"

"I'll catch you," He promised after a moments confusion - _After all, how many of his team has he had to catch before because they couldn't jump a gap?__ Somehow,_ _Jess thought his men could manage it_ - swinging his weapon onto his back and out of the way.

"Okay… right…" She muttered reluctantly, unable to tear her eyes away from the drop. "I'm coming… now…"

Becker actually smiled a little, and rolled his eyes. "Whenever you're ready, Jessica."

"I'm ready."

"Okay."

"I am…"

"So jump."

"I am…" She complained, then took a deep breath, told herself to man up, and jumped, squeezing her eyes shut tight.

Becker caught her, like he said he would, clutching her close to his body.

"Thank you," She breathed as he put her back on her feet.

"Just... doing my job," He replied awkwardly.

She swallowed, then made herself concentrate.

Closing the anomaly was tricky - it took her ten minutes and a couple of tries to reset the locking device properly. As soon as it was a success, she grinned, then turned back to Becker, who was standing behind her, watching the door intently.

She rolled her eyes.

"Relax, Becker. You locked it."

"Doesn't mean a creature can't open it."

"I'm pretty sure Saurornithoides don't have opposable thumbs."

He gave her a half-serious glare. "Yes, thank you, Jess."

"Just enriching your education," She quipped happily.

He rolled his eyes as they regrouped under the vent. "I went to Sandhurst Secondary School - it specialises in science."

"Sandhurst to Sandhurst?" She teased.

Becker made a _'seriously, kill me now'_ mock face, complete with amused sigh, then surveyed the vent.

"There's no way we're getting back up there," He had to admit. "Even in your heels. We'll have to take the corridors."

"What?" Jess turned to him, wide eyed.

"We'll be careful," He told her, unperturbed. "I'll keep you safe, Jess. I promised you that."

"But what about you?" She asked meekly.

He interrupted what could potentially be awkward silence with, "This is my job, Jess. I don't need protection, _I'm_ the protection. I... could use a partner though?"

"Me?"

"Who else, Jessica?" He smirked kindly, then his whole face turned soft, knowing this was probably hard for her, out of her comfort zone. "Do you think you can do that? Do exactly as I say and watch my back?"

"I've always got your back," She pointed out. Then nodded. "Okay."

"Let's go," He ushered her towards the door. "There's a staircase at the end of this corridor. Should take us to the ground floor, right by the A&E doors."

"That doesn't sound too bad," She commented optimistically.

"There _is _three branching corridors from which carnivorous creatures could potentially attack us," He added.

"Brilliant," She sighed dryly, sounding much too much like him, and following him out the door, trusty EMD raised. "Maybe the Saurornithoides are still in that room a floor above?" She suggested quietly.

"Maybe they're stalking us now," Becker countered.

"I was just trying to be optimistic…" She muttered as they reached the first crossroads.

Becker gestured for her to copy him as he placed his back flat on the wall to the right and tilted his body to glance down the left corridor. She did the same as best she could down the right corridor.

"Clear," He breathed. "Anything?"

"Not so far as I can see," She replied quietly. "I much prefer CCTV, though."

"Come on then," He continued stepping cautiously down the corridor, every so often stopping to listen back the way they'd come. Suddenly, he leaned towards Jess, so close she was momentarily surprised.

_Oh god. Why does he have to stand-  
><em>

_Concentrate, Jess! Now is not the time._

_But-_

"Do you think you could keep a look out behind?"

She nodded.

They continued to creep through the empty corridor, highly aware that they could be attacked by multiple bird-raptors at any moment. Jess tried to slow her breathing, for sound purposes, but also for her sense of calm.

_Breathe, Jess. Breathe. Concentrate. Don't mess up._

_Oh, god, __**please**__ don't kill Becker._

"Jess," He hissed, and she spun to face him. They'd reached the second junction. They repeated the same actions, both declaring it clear, and momentarily crossed into the open space, before steeping to the relative safety of the corridor.

There was a sudden sound like a screeching, angry snap from one of the creatures a floor or two above them, and Jess jumped out of her skin. She tried to hold back the squeal, but some of it still escaped. She started to shake and hyperventilate.

_Oh, god, she couldn't do this._

_Why was she here?_

_She was so unprepared for this._

_She was going to die._

_Oh god.  
><em>

"Jess, Jessica," Becker quickly trapped her against the side of the corridor for stability against her back, his hands firm and strong on either of her arms. "Shh, calm down. Come on, you're doing so well. You can do this."

She took a deep, steady breath, then looked at him. He was like a rock - solid and strong and unmoving - and he had faith in her. She _could_ do this.

"Okay?" He asked carefully.

"Okay," She nodded. "Yes, yeah, I'm… okay."

"Okay," He agreed, and they began the slow creep to the last junction.

Jess started to believe that actually, yes, they _could_ do this together. They'd escaped two Saurornithoides out to eat them, crawled through god knows how much of the ventilation system, and locked the ticky anomaly. Only one more junction to go and they would be at the home run stage - eight flights of stairs and safety.

Maybe they would have time to get that drink?

They could-

A growling-screeching snarl caught her attention, and she snapped her EMD round to face it.

_Definitely nearby this time._

The Saurornithoide was standing at the last junction they'd just passed in the middle of the corridor, staring at her with its huge, piercing eyes, large clawed second toe on its right foot clacking menacingly on the solid hospital floor like she'd seen raptors do in _Jurassic Park_.

It was sizing her up, deciding if it could make the two and a half meters in one jump.

Jess didn't move, barely even breathed.

Becker, who stood by the next junction a meter behind her, spun to face the situation.

"Jess," He breathed, the creature barely glancing at him. His voice was unusually strained, and even faced with a carnivorous dinosaur, Jess could hear the worry in his voice. "Jess, don't panic. Listen and do _exactly_ as I say, okay? Slowly, _very slowly_, pick up your right foot and place it behind you. Careful now."

Shaking violently, she placed the foot behind her.

There was no way she was going to be able to aim properly and shoot it in the state she was in. And god knew that Becker wouldn't have enough time.

_Better not to aggravate it either._

The creature snorted.

_Too late for that._

_Oh god, it's going to rip me to pieces, _she thought, which didn't help at all. _Curse her and her uncensored thoughts._

"And again, Jess," Becker's voice was the only security she had. "Your left foot. Lift it as little as possible…"

She managed one more step, almost to Becker, who had retreated into the junction as she had retreated in the hope that they could slowly and carefully make it to the door a couple of feet behind him. His EMD was raised, trained on the Saurornithoide staring her down, so he didn't see it coming.

For once, he was caught unawares.

The second Saurornithoide darted out from behind the nurse's station three feet from him with a screech, snapping and aiming right for his head.

The noise and action snapped the first Saurornithoide into action, but Jess didn't waste time waiting for it to make a move.

She bolted backwards towards Becker and the other creature.

At least that way had a door.

"Becker!" She screamed as she detoured around the other side of the nurse's station, putting it between herself and the first creature, and remerged back in the corridor behind the second creature.

Becker had dived backwards, getting caught by the creature's left talon across the chest but thankfully avoiding the whole thing. He lay half slumped against the wall, and shot the frustrated creature that had attacked him three times in the face.

It was pushed back so that the two Saurornithoides were side by side, and angry, snarling at them hungrily, clicking their toes in a way that would haunt Jess's dreams for a long time.

The door to the stairwell was only a couple of meters away now, but Becker was finding it hard to breath as blood gushed out of the nasty, jagged cut on his chest, his faded black uniform staining red fast.

Jess raised her EMD and took a shot, succeeding in angering the Saurornithoides as a full-blast slammed into one. She used the few precious seconds to place her arm under Becker's waist and hoisted him up.

"Jess-" He winced, his voice hoarse. "You can't-"

"Shut up and shoot," She snapped, retreating quickly to the stairwell door as the Saurornithoides advanced, incredibly irritated now.

One made a jump for them as they reached the closed door, but Becker shot it with a pulse right in the chest.

Jess shifted his weight, now painfully aware that they were cornered if she couldn't get this door open, and wrenched it with all her might.

It was heavy, and hardly moved.

"Come _on_!" She yelled, somewhat desperate and hysterical now. The creatures screeched again, and edged forwards, sizing up their prey. _Probably deciding who to eat first._ "Open!"

She tried it again, and the catch broke free, the heavy door inching open enough for her to drag Becker through.

As he crossed the threshold and made to slam the resisting door the second Saurornithoide made a swipe at him, drawing a deep slash across his right upper arm, evidently hitting an artery or some important blood vessel with the amount of blood it drew.

"Becker!" Jess tried to call his attention as he slumped to the floor, his back to the door which was now being rammed violently by the furious Saurornithoides. "Becker!" She knelt down in front of him desperately, tilting his face so that she could see his eyes. They were unfocused and full of pain. "Becker, look at me. Come on, we have to keep moving, the others might come from above. Just some stairs - that's all there is, just some stairs - and then we can get someone to patch up your arm and chest."

"And…" He had to take a deep breath, which caused him to cough up blood. "…stomach."

Without hesitating, Jess's hands snapped to his t-shirt and she pulled it up a couple of inches. Sure enough, there was another jagged gash across his stomach muscles, torn skin and blood making it hard to determine the length or depth. But definitely deep. And nasty.

She probably would have fainted from it. But Becker was a lot tougher.

Still, he was obviously trying hard to fight unconsciousness and just _breath_.

"Oh god," She couldn't help the words leave her mouth as she covered it with her hands, desperately attempting to stop the blood flow, and trying not to gag. "Oh…"

"Thanks…" Becker managed a weak sarcastic joke. "Vote… of confidence."

She chuckled weakly, before realising how inappropriate that was. "Come on," She steeled herself and hauled him carefully to his feet as the banging against the door continued just as determinedly. "Let's get you to medical."

"Mission… success…" He joked again dryly, and rather macabrely, as they took the stairs painfully slowly - or just painfully for Becker. Jess watched his feet and tried not to complain at the weight he was now placing on her shoulders.

"It was," She tried to convince him, tried to show her usual optimism, for his sake. "Anomaly locked, creatures located."

"One man down," Becker winced at the end of the sentence as he landed a little too heavily on his feet. A screech from the floor of above broke the relative silence of the hospital.

Jess looked aghast at his words. "No, don't say that. Besides, you can't... you still owe me a drink." She tried to lighten the mood as they reached the sixth floor.

He chuckled rather weakly, but it just brought up splatters of blood. "Should have… pretty," He mumbled.

Jess snapped her head round to face him immediately, his eyes were even more unfocused, and his words were becoming slightly incoherent now.

She tried not to panic. She really did.

"Should have?" She pressed, trying to keep him on track and his mind working. So long as he was in conversation, he was still conscious, which meant he was still alive, and still moving towards safety.

"For dinner," He told her hoarsely. "Drinks was… cowardly."

Jess tried not to feel unnecessarily pleased, but luckily shock took over.

_Did Becker just confess to wanting to ask her out?_

"We'll go out for dinner," She promised. "If you want…"

"Def…" He breathed heavily as they reached the fourth floor.

"Hey, Becker," She shook him slightly to keep him awake, then realised just how stupid that was. "Stay with me," She tried not to sound panicked, but she was. Her voice shook as another screech from a creature sounded from within the floor they were on. The creatures were following from within the corridors, and one of the stairwell doors was just _bound_ to be ajar. "You can't… you promised you'd look after me," She pointed out desperately, aware that she sounded so whiney when he was the one potentially dying. But she wouldn't have said it if she wasn't so afraid.

"I… did," He agreed, leaning his weight on her so much that she knew it was the strength from adrenaline keeping him up. "I… always…"

"Becker?" She called his attention as his head lolled forwards slightly and they reached the second floor. He blinked at picked his head up a little to look at her. The sheer amount of effort it took unnerved her.

"You're… so beautiful," He mumbled, completely out of it now.

Jess swallowed. "Ideally, you would have said that at dinner, but I guess under threat from a creature attack is the best I can hope for with us," She tried to joke.

"I'm not… good enough," He took her words literally, seriously. And now he was just spurting out his _actual_ thoughts, and Jess didn't want him to regret anything he said. "You…"

"Shh," She told him gently as they reached the bottom of the staircase and emerged in the eerily huge but silent and gloomy A&E. On the other side of the double glass doors twenty feet away was Matt and Emily, along with a medical team and a hoard of soldiers gearing up to go in. "We're almost there," She told Becker as Matt and Emily spotted them.

"Open the doors!" They heard Matt order immediately to a soldier, as the quarantine meant they wouldn't open from the inside. "_Now_!"

Then Becker stumbled, and Jess wasn't sure they were even going to make it to the doors.

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><p><strong>This is my longest chapter yet for this story! I actually rather like it, so <em>please<em> like it? :) Anyway, I'd looooove to know what you thought. Next chapter coming tomorrow, I promise!**** I might expand this to an extra chapter after that, depending on how my re-write of chapter 5 goes. Let me know what you think? :)**

**Thank you! x**


	5. Chapter 5

**Firstly, I want to thank you all for the amazing feedback. You've all been wonderful.**

**I also want to say that this story was supposed to be fluffy, with some angst, and only five chapters. But I _really_ hated the original last chapter I'd written (honestly, it was terribly unrealistic) so I sat down and tried to edit it and... well, this happened. So there's going to be one more chapter _after_ this one (sorry about that!) Maybe I can even get it up today as compensation for the ending for this one.**.**. I don't want Jet Becker to fail her exam, LOL, (good luck, by the way!) so I _definitely_ will try to get the the chapter up ASAP - in the mean time, revise! :D**

**Babycakes10121 wanted a longer chapter - I'm not sure I did that, but I have delivered two, if you'll take that instead? :)**

**Anyway, sorry for rambling, but I just wrote the last half of this in one sitting and now my body is hyper from writing. (This is why I should stick to fluff, LOL).**

**I hope you like it!**

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><p>The unit of soldiers spun to face them as somebody pressed the lock and the doors slid open.<p>

"Jess!" Emily called as Matt ran to meet them, Becker causing Jess to limp along at a snails pace, and took the other side of Becker, who was now dangerously limp in her arms. The unbearable weight was immediately lifted, but she didn't let go. She wouldn't.

Besides, one of her hands was pressed firmly against his stomach, still desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

Her hands were soaked red.

"Jess," Matt got straight to the point. "What happened?"

"We locked the anomaly," She focused on what she knew, rather than slipping into shock or panic. The sudden noise and bustle around her was unnerving after the eerie hospital. Her voice was unsteady and her eyes were glued to Becker's stomach injury in a constant state of panic. "Two Saurornithoides attacked us on the way out. Becker was so preoccupied with keeping me alive he didn't notice the one hiding."

A medical team brought a gurney over, and Matt and Jess lowered him, now barely conscious, onto it. Three of his soldiers - ones Jess definitely remembered seeing often under his command in first unit - and Emily, followed close behind. They looked extremely alarmed - after all, how often (if ever) had they seen Becker like this?

Jess continued to press down on his wound, and the medics didn't instruct her otherwise.

"We need to get in there and contain the creatures," Jess heard Matt order to the unit now prepared to go in. "The anomaly is locked, so we don't have to worry about a stream of creatures attacking us. Our main priority is to contain and relocate the creatures to the anomaly room on…"

"The eighth floor," Jess supplied, which he repeated. "Room H, MRI scanner."

The unit began preparing to move out. Matt turned to Jess. "I'm going with them, Jess. Will you be alright?"

"I'll look after her," Emily promised him. Jess tried not to think about the state of the last person who had promised that, but she could hardly tear her eyes away from him anyway.

_Speaking of Becker…_

"Abby," Jess managed to speak clearly into the comms, "don't let Tami over. Becker's..."

"Got it," She replied shortly, probably restraining from showing her concern in case Becker's sister panicked.

"Jess…" Becker's hoarse and strained voice surprised her, Emily, the soldiers and the medical team who had all but declared him unconscious.

"Becker!" She exclaimed thankfully. His hand twitched, so she edged closer and leaned down to hear what he wanted to say. She wanted so desperately to hold his hand - screw protocol - but hers were preoccupied and covered in his own blood. He didn't even hesitate when he raised his left hand to cover hers with on his stomach. He must have felt the blood, but he didn't show it.

_Maybe he'd seen worse injuries out in Afghanistan,_ she thought suddenly. _Maybe he'd __**had**__ worse injuries?_

"You're going to be okay," She promised, hoping beyond everything that it was the truth. "And when you get out of hospital you have to promise me _never_ to get distracted by me again. You stupid, _stupid_, foolhardy, _idiot_," the words were critical, but she was almost crying in relief and he knew she was grateful, only concerned for him.

"I… always…," He breathed as the medics raised him slowly onto an ambulance, Jess stepping up with them under the instruction of one of the medics. "I'll promise… dinner."

"Good," She pretended to be strict. "Because I'm holding you to that, whether you've been attacked by a creature or not, Becker."

Then she smiled, grateful that he was alive and actually trying to smile back. She ignored the blood, and the tubes, and the medics as best she could.

She knew she needed to stay to reopen the anomaly long enough for the team to shove the creatures back through, but one glance at Emily and the Victorian woman was saying into the comms, "Connor, we need you here to lock the anomaly… oh, ignore Matt, he's not in charge."

There was the muffled sound of a cheer of success through the comms, then Connor had signed off.

Emily looked at Jess as the medics made to shut the doors to the ambulance. "If Matt goes on about field clearance, I'll give him a piece of your mind, Jess."

"Thank you," Jess managed a grateful smile, and knew that, born in the Victorian Era or not, Emily was a strong 21st Century woman undoubtedly.

And then the doors were slammed shut, and Jess, an unconscious Becker, and three medics were being driven, sirens blaring, away from one hospital and to another. Luckily they were in a populated city, and the closest other hospital wasn't too far.

One of the medics started Becker on a drip, probably morphine, and another was furiously writing something down. The third came up behind Jess and pushed her hands - Becker's left limply still clutched over her own - down harder into his stomach. Jess worried she would cause more damage than she would help, but the medic just instructed her to keep the pressure.

"He's not as fragile as he looks," The older woman told her. "Just keep putting pressure on that wound, and you'll really help out the doctors when we get him into surgery."

"Surgery?" Jess managed to squeak out. She was alone - because Becker wasn't really in a position to be supportive, was he? - and completely out of her depth. She tried not to shake, but couldn't help it.

_What are you doing here Jess?_ She thought. _This is crazy._

"He'll need surgery," The woman told her truthfully. Jess was glad for that. She may be young, naïve and completely clueless in this situation, but she wasn't a child. She wanted to know. "But… it's not so bad."

Jess swallowed, staring at his face, looking so peaceful, such a stark contrast to what had just happened to him. She had to fight back the urge to pick up her hand and push his fringe out of his eyes. It made him look like a little kid sleeping, dreaming, and as much as it would have been adorable in another circumstance, it unnerved her now. "R-Really?"

She tried to keep the hope out of her voice. The look two of the medics exchanged told her she'd failed.

"What's your name?" The woman asked kindly. One part of Jess appreciated the attempt to relax her, the other really just wanted to know if Becker was going to be alright.

"Jess," She breathed, suddenly hearing it in Becker's voice: the way he'd joked with her earlier about attending Sandhurst, the way he'd calmed her down in the corridor when she'd almost freaked out on him, the way he'd said it as he said slumped against the wall in the stairwell.

"Nice to meet you, Jess," The woman told her calmly. "I'm Claire."

"What…" Jess swallowed, then started again, trying not to shake. "Is Becker going to be okay?"

"It's still bad," Claire told her as the other medics, who Jess hadn't really been watching earlier, started doing something to his chest. "But your hands are stopping a lot of the blood loss - it was a good thing you had enough sense to put pressure on it that when you saw the damage."

"I've… had first aid training," Jess mumbled weakly. It was the only thing she could think of to say.

"You may have saved his life," Claire was telling her again as she watched the other two medics finish their examination of his chest and arm wounds.

Jess swallowed.

_This was too much._

"No…" She shook her head rapidly from side to side, panicking. She couldn't abandon Becker, wouldn't, but this was too much. She shouldn't have even been on site, and now her… and now Becker might- "No… I can't…"

"Shh," The woman stared her right in the eyes, which was oddly reassuring, rather than unnerving.

"Please," Jess begged, overcome with how serious it could have been, or maybe even still was. _Surgery?_ "Please, you do it. I… you're the medic. I'm just… I…"

"No," The woman told her firmly. "Your hands are on an artery. When we get to the hospital we'll take him into surgery and one of the doctors will careful switch with you. Then I'll be right outside to get you checked on, okay?"

Jess nodded, glancing back down at Becker. Her voice came out as a breath. "He'll… he _has_ to be okay."

There was an awkward pause, where none of the medics responded.

But before Jess could panic, they pulled to a halt outside the hospital, and the doors were wrenched open by doctors.

The next few minutes were a blur of chaos - movement, voices, commands, medical jargon, and people calmly introducing themselves to her with expressions on their face that showed they were expecting her to freak out and do something stupid at any second.

Jess didn't.

Sure, she was absolutely petrified, completely overwhelmed and undeniably in shock, but she wasn't going to let that hurt the man in front of her on the gurney.

She'd told him earlier that she always had his back, and she damn well was going to keep to that promise.

They hurried through the bright walls of the hospital, piling through double doors as if they were nothing but air: her, Becker, Claire and four doctors.

The corridors were alive and buzzing, brightly lit and chaotic.

They were still white.

Jess doubted she would ever be able to see another white-washed hospital wall without conjuring up the image of Becker's blood smeared across it.

They reached the surgery room and somebody placed a surgical mask over her face. Then they were inside, and it was just like she'd seen them on TV, albeit more _real_: more gloomy, more scary, more serious.

Anything could happen in here.

Derek Shepherd wasn't going to materialise and save the day.

Anybody could die.

Jess never wanted to watch _Grey's Anatomy_ again.

"Jess?" A middle aged man with a trimmed beard and grey hair looked to her across Becker with a fixed, steady gaze and complete eye contact. "I'm Doctor Dardon. Call me Jonathon."

"My dad's name is Jonathon," Jess mumbled back meekly. Again, the only thing she could make herself say seemed unimportant, but it calmed her a little to know that she _could_ speak in coherent sentences.

"That's good," He smiled reassuringly. She should have felt like a child at the tone, but she didn't. It was comforting to know that this man clearly knew what he was doing. "Now, Dr Kisling here is going to place her hands under yours, and when she tells you too, you're going to lift yours up as quick as you can and step away from the table. Do you think you can do that for me?"

Jess nodded as a young blonde doctor came and stood beside her.

She gave Jess a reassuring nod, but otherwise didn't delay. Jess liked that.

As soon as the woman's small hands sidled under her own, Jess was ready to let go. She didn't think she had the strength to continue applying pressure, and she just wanted Becker to be left in capable hands. Hers were more than incapable and inadequate in comparison.

"Ready?" The woman whispered calmly. Jess nodded again. "Now."

As she sprung back, lifting her hands up close to her own body, and Dr Kipling stepped into the space she'd been standing, closer to the gurney, closer to Becker, closer to the wound. Even from her position behind the doctor, Jess could already tell that the woman had applied pressure immediately.

She didn't want to look at Becker, but she couldn't _not_ do so.

He looked like he was sleeping, except for the sheer amount of blood now smudged across his stomach and chest.

And that damned piece of hair was still in his eyes.

Jess sucked in a breath, then bit her lip to calm herself.

_The blood was too much._

Then Claire was there, keeping to her promise, leading her away and out of the surgery room.

"That blood," Jess kept repeating. "I didn't know… someone could bleed so much. There was so much blood."

"It's okay," Claire said every time. "You did the best you could. You were brilliant."

Jess couldn't help but wish she'd used any other word.

* * *

><p><strong>So it's different to my usualness, so I'm <em>dying<em> for reviews? Thank you for reading! Please stay tuned for the next chapter (which should have enough fluff to counteract this, if I can manage it! :D)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you all for your wonderful feedback, you guys. You're all so nice, so I love updating and reading your lovely reviews!**

**This is the last chapter. I hope the fluff makes up for the last chapter, but if not I could always find time to write an extra fluffy/cute Jecker one-shot some time? Let me know. :D**

**I hope you like it.**

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><p>It wasn't until she's been left alone in the bathroom of an unoccupied hospital room with an en suite to clean the blood off her hands that Jess had realised she didn't have Becker's sister's number.<p>

As the red water ran down the drain, the warmth and soap slowly transformed her hands back to normal, to the ones she saw dancing across the ADD keyboard everyday and issuing commands to people around the ARC.

"Jess?"

And suddenly Abby was there, breaking the silence, hugging her - as unusual as that might be for Abby.

The Cretaceous had made her more of a friendly person, easier to get to know because she was a little more willing.

"Abby?" Jess was pleased to find her voice stronger now that she'd had a glass of water and a cup of tea filled with sugar. She wasn't shaking any more, but her mind was whirling. Abby was a welcome distraction. "What are you doing here?"

"I came as soon as Connor arrived in the field," She told her, stepping back and leaning on the counter beside the sink as Jess continued rinsing her hands. Abby didn't pretend not to study her, she just did it. "Emily's with Tami. She's bringing her over as soon as she can - Tami wanted to make sure her patients at the hospital were alright, and Lester wouldn't let her leave without signing some stuff."

Abby was obviously more than a little annoyed at Lester's insensitivity.

"I guess he still has a job to do," Jess mumbled. She'd stopped scrubbing her hands now, and turned her attention to the mirror - something she'd avoided until now.

Her skin was only just regaining some of its pink tint, and her eyes were much wider than normal. She looked either ten years older, or ten years younger - Jess couldn't quite decide which.

There was smudges of Becker's blood across her forehead and cheek where she'd wiped at her face earlier.

Abby picked up a flannel that a hospital nurse had kindly provided and rinsed it under the warm tap before dabbing it against Jess's forehead.

It made Jess want her mother desperately. She wanted to be hugged and called 'Jessie' and curl up under her covers and forget about everything.

But determination beat that.

She _needed_ to know that Becker was alright.

"He's still in surgery," Abby mumbled carefully, reading her thoughts. "The nurses said he should be out soon, but he'll be unconscious. They said he probably won't wake up for another couple of hours. You should get something to eat."

Jess shook her head. "To tell you the truth, I don't think I _can_ eat."

"Then we'll make Connor get us some anyway," Abby tried to lighten the mood. "For our own entertainment - we're four floors up from the cafeteria."

Jess actually cracked a smile, and she was grateful for the other womans attempt to lighten the mood. "Thank you, Abby."

"Don't mention it," She smiled back.

Connor interrupted as he bounded into the room like a golden retriever, his sulky owner, Matt, trailing after him like a man reluctantly walking his dog in the park.

"Jess!" And then Connor hugged her, and didn't let go for a ridiculous amount of time, swinging her from side to side slightly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Connor," Jess almost chuckled a little at the extreme concern. "It's Becker who's in surgery."

Connor nodded probably deciding that he couldn't think of anything appropriate to say that wouldn't make it worse, like _'Well I can't really hug him, can I?'_, then went to stand next to Abby by the sink.

Then _Matt_ hugged her.

_Now Jess was worried._

It was awkward, but she appreciated it all the same.

"I'm fine, honestly," She pressed. "I may have been a little in shock earlier, but I'm fine. I just want to know that Becker is alright, and then I want to go home and crawl into bed for the next two weeks with nothing but tequila and chocolate."

Abby nodded sympathetically.

"Emily's gone to ask for news," Matt informed her casually.

"Emily's here?" Jess asked, standing up straighter. "Is Tami with her?"

Matt nodded. Connor answered for him. "The nurses wheeled her off to check over her cuts and bruises and stuff. She's fine, but they know her really well, so they're being-"

"Helpful," Abby supplied. Jess was more than sure that wasn't the word Connor was going to use. She smiled at that - normality was nice.

"Emily told me to give you this, Jess," Matt said, handing her a bag with clothes in.

Jess looked down at what she was wearing, and realised that there was a line of blood across her own mid-section where she had leaned over Becker and blood had got on her clothes. Specks covered her shirt a little too. Her shoes were thankfully untouched.

She made an appreciative noise. "Emily needs a pay rise."

"Not before me," Connor exclaimed. "I spent a year in the Cretaceous!"

* * *

><p>They all retreated out of the bathroom and into the actual room to allow Jess some privacy to change.<p>

Emily had obviously had a spare pair of clothes packed in the car, and this was it. There was a choice between a glittery black dress that Jess remembered seeing her wearing at Jenny's wedding (she supposed Emily hadn't had a permanent home then, so hadn't had anywhere else to put it), or a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt that she assumed belonged to Matt.

She chose the jeans and shirt. The heels were enough formal wear for a hospital.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Connor and Abby were arguing over the remote (Abby was obviously winning), bundled together stretched out on the bed, and Matt and Emily sat in the two chairs with their backs to the narrow window and their faces turned towards the door, whispering together like an old married couple.

_They were so sweet_, Jess thought briefly. Then she made a mental note _never_ to say that out loud to Matt.

Matt made to get up and offer her his seat, but Jess didn't want it - she didn't think she'd be able to stay still.

"Thank you, Emily," Jess told her as she placed the bag, now full of her dirty clothes and Emily's beautiful black dress, on the floor at the end of the bed. "You're a life saver."

Emily smiled. "You're welcome."

Matt glanced at her, then turned to Emily and, in a move uncharacteristically like him, divulged a hint of his personal life and asked in a confused and surprised voice, "Is that my shirt?"

Emily just shrugged and raised an eyebrow as if to say _'So what?'_

"I've been looking for that everywhere," He mumbled, but didn't press it under her withering gaze.

Abby and Jess chuckled slightly at Emily's completely uncaring expression, and at Matt's complaining look.

Then the arrival of Dr Dardon sobered them up.

"Jess Parker?"

She whipped her head around immediately and walked over to the doctor. "Is he okay? Is he out of surgery? Did you stop the bleeding? He's okay, though, right? Is he unconscious? Oh, god, he's not in a coma is he? Can I see him?"

"Jess," Abby got up from the bed and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Calm down. Let the doctor speak."

"Sorry," Jess took a huge breath in to calm herself, and to give him time to speak.

"We stopped the bleeding. There was substantial internal damage to his stomach, but vitally the chest wound wasn't as deep. Whatever it was that got him cracked a couple of ribs, but they managed to protect his heart. He's stable, and sleeping. You can see him whenever you're ready, but he might not wake up for a couple of hours - it's hard to tell. He's fit and healthy, and he's come back from a lot of serious injuries, so he might wake up at any time. I can take you to him now, if you like?"

"Yes please," Jess said immediately, her words almost interrupting the end of the doctors sentence.

Jonathon Dardon smiled at her with a twinkle in his eyes, like her dad did, and said, "Only if you promise not to bombard him with words as soon as he wakes up?"

"I promise," Jess agreed sheepishly as she blushed. "Thank you, Doctor Dardon."

"I'll show you to him then," The doctor said. "And please, call me Jonathon. I don't normally condone too much informality, but you remind me of my daughter-in-law."

Jess didn't know what to say, so she just nodded as Jonathon Dardon led her, Abby, Connor and Matt to Becker's room one floor up.

It was room 505, Becker's locker number at the ARC. Jess was never going to forget it now.

The door was ajar, but Dr Dardon stopped outside it, muttered a quiet, "I'll leave you to some peace and quiet," and then quickly left. He was probably busy anyway, and showing them up there was already kind enough.

The monitor Becker was hooked up to beeped at a steady, slow rhythm from deep inside the gloomy room, and a huge weight lifted from Jess's heart as she peered into it.

She let out a relieved breath and leant against the doorframe. "Thank god."

Abby pushed her forwards slightly. "Go on, then."

"Me?" Jess turned to her in alarm, her voice shooting up a couple of octaves.

Abby laughed kindly. "Jess, you've been desperate to see him for the last couple of hours, and now you don't want to be the first into the room?"

"No… no," Jess protested, completely confused at her own feelings. "I just… he looks so peaceful. I don't want to disturb that."

Connor's stomach rumbled.

"Let's get some food, Con," Abby said, jumping on the excuse. "Matt? Emily? Becker looks good to me. We'll see him when he wakes up. You okay on your own Jess?"

Jess knew Abby was stalling for time to give her some privacy. She was both embarrassed her feelings for Becker were that obvious, and insanely grateful. She didn't know if she'd sit by his bedside calmly until he woke up, or if she'd break down into tears.

"I…"

"He'll want to see you when he wakes up," Emily commented frankly, in that way only Emily could. "Not us."

"We'll be back in an hour," Matt agreed.

"Or an hour and a half, if there's pudding," Connor grinned. Abby elbowed him as the four of them walked away, Connor calling back loudly down the corridor, attracting the attention of a couple of nurses, "Tell Action Man we said _'hi'_!"

That left Jess hovering outside the threshold of Becker's room.

She dawdled another few seconds - occupied nurses hurrying past, worried family members asking questions at the nurse's station nearby - and then she took a few tentative steps into the room.

It wasn't nearly as bad as she'd thought it would be.

The monitor continued to beep a steady rhythm, highlighting that nothing had changed, or been jinxed, just because she'd crossed into the room.

She picked up the chair beside the bed near to the door and walked with it round to the other side of the room, furthest from the door, and positioned her back to the wall so that she could easily see out into the corridor beyond as well as sit with Becker.

She didn't realised until she'd sat down that it was a military trait. A _Becker_ trait.

She glanced at him. He was lying on his back, his arms draped across his chest and the plain hospital blanket pulled up to cover most of his chest.

Jess hesitated a second, then reached over to gently clasp one of her hands over his.

Immediately, she felt calmer.

His hands were warm, just like normal, and the monitor behind her continued beeping rhythmically. He was okay.

_He was okay._

She allowed herself a smile in the privacy of the room, then turned back to study him in more detail, determined to check that he really _was_ okay. The doctors had their standards, and she had hers.

He looked just as he had in the surgery room, just like he was sleeping, but this time his chest was rising and falling in time with his steady breaths, and she could feel it as her hand on his rose and fell in time to the monitor. His hair was a complete mess - very unlike she'd ever seen it before, and that same piece of hair draped across his forehead and into his right eye.

_Now_, it was adorable.

She reached across and brushed it back from his face, combing his whole hair off of his forehead in an affectionate gesture.

"You are so in love with him," She muttered to herself before she could stop the words from coming out.

Her eyes went wide from surprise.

Sure, she _knew_ she had feelings for him, and _sure_ it was obvious to everyone and they constantly teased her about it and _sure_, she knew in the back of her mind that it was probably love, not just a crush or attraction, but… she'd just admitted it out loud, blatantly. And sort of, almost, _to him_.

_No way you can lie to yourself now, Jess._

She studied his face still, and realised she didn't care.

She'd always felt like she was the younger child, running around and nursing a crush on her elder brother's best friend, a futile crush that just embarrassed her and made her seem immature. But right that second, sitting by his bedside in a hospital room waiting for him to wake up, waiting for him to recover from a wound which had stained her hands with his blood, she didn't care.

She really didn't.

He was seven years older than her, but so what? Her parents had a nine year gap between them, and her sister had once dated a guy twelve years older than her (although, Jess was pretty certain her parents had disapproved of _that_). Either way, she wasn't going to let what other people thought get in the way of her feelings for Becker any more.

Unless it was him.

She couldn't really do anything then.

_Oh god, what if he didn't remember? Or worse, what if he __**pretended**__ he didn't remember to get out of dinner?_

_No, he'd promise before the attack…_

"Just focus on getting better, Becker," She told him quietly. "You're doing brilliant."

The increase in frequency of the beeping on the monitor behind her almost made her jump out of her skin.

Both her hands, clutched tightly in his across his chest, tensed, and suddenly a hoarse voice croaked out quietly, "God, your grip is like a Raptor."

There was no denying the amusement in his voice, and Jess almost cried in happiness as she turned to see him with his eyes open, staring at her.

"Oh my god!" She grinned, edging forwards in her seat. "Becker!"

"Jess?" He asked, even though it was obviously her. "Are you okay?"

She laughed, carefree and in disbelief that he'd actually asked _her_ that, for a short moment. "Am _I_ okay? I think I should be asking _you_ that."

"Oh, I'm fine," Becker sighed, breezily. "Lester's still not going to let me on that training expedition, is he?"

Jess shook her head in disbelief. "You are _not_ fine, Becker. You were attacked by a creature and you lost a lot of blood. You've got two cracked ribs, for gods sake!"

He smiled at her, amused, which just caused her to let out her own amused sigh of disbelief.

_Men, _she cursed.

_Soldiers,_ she corrected.

_Hell, **Becker**._

"Do… water?" He mumbled, trying to sit up.

Jess leaned forwards to stop him, her hand gently pushing against his shoulder. "You shouldn't move."

He looked like her was going to argue as he gave her a challenging _'are you seriously telling me what to do?'_ smirk - one she'd seen often at the ARC - but she pulled the glass of water from the desk beside her and handed it to him, placing the straw in it as she did so.

"Drink slowly," She told him cautiously. "You don't want hiccups."

Becker actually rolled his eyes. Water helping clear his throat, he told her with a smile, "Stop fussing, Jess. I'm fine, honestly."

"But you-"

"Honestly," He told her firmly, looking straight at her. "I've survived internal injuries before."

She swallowed, and couldn't help but breath out. "I'm so glad you're okay."

She didn't blush, and he didn't roll his eyes or tease her. He just squeezed her hand with the one not holding the glass and said, "I'm glad _you're_ okay."

"Oh, you know me," She tried to breeze past it, just as he had. "Perfectly cheery, as usual."

"Jess…" He warned.

_Damn. He could see right through her._

"See?" She tried to gesture in the general direction of herself. "I'm good."

Becker, completely ignoring her earlier warning, placed the glass on the desk beside him and sat up slowly. He leaned forwards and used his finger to wipe a speck of blood from her cheek, where Abby hadn't quite gotten to cleaning it before Connor and Matt had arrived earlier.

"You're bleeding," He complained, eyebrows knitting, as he did so.

"It's not mine," She replied in a measured tone.

He caught the real meaning immediately.

He didn't move his hand from her face. "I'm really sorry for putting you in that situation, Jess."

"You probably saved my life, Becker," She protested.

"And you _definitely_ saved mine," He argued.

"So we're even."

He gave her a pointed look, tilting his head. "I don't think that's equal. You've saved my life twice now."

"Well, I'm just brilliant at my job, I guess," She joked. "And I seem to recall that last time I at least got a Chinese."

"You _are _brilliant," He breathed, leaning forwards even more, ever so slightly, one hand still holding hers up by his chest, the other gently held against her left cheek.

If she had been the one hooked up to the monitor, it probably would have flat-lined.

_Okay, so maybe he wouldn't forget about those drinks. Maybe he actually meant dinner._

_Who are you kidding, Jess? Of course he meant it, with the way he's looking at you now._

"I… suppose the least you can do is take me out for those drinks when they discharge you?" She asked sheepishly, hopefully. She tried to make it casual, but knew that even if she had succeeded in doing so in her tone, those words could never really be casual between them.

He stared at her completely blankly for a few long seconds, then rolled his eyes. "I thought I promised you dinner?"

She grinned, unable to stop it.

Becker leaned forward and placed a kiss gently on the corner of her mouth.

When he pulled back she didn't know what to say. Half of her wanted to just kiss him properly, the other half realised that wouldn't really help his recovery, nor would it be considered an appropriate setting for a first kiss.

_But since when had they been __**appropriate**__?_

They locked eyes, and she could see the exact moment when he realised what she was thinking.

She leaned forwards this time, so that he didn't strain his muscles or stitches too much, but he still met her halfway.

She kind of forgot that the door was wide open in that minute.

She'd imagined kissing him before, and she was pleasantly surprised to find that her imagination was completely useless. He was strong - even in the relatively fragile state he was in - and warm and gentle. And, of course, being a good kisser helped.

_Her parents could fret over the age difference all they wanted._

She wasn't ever going to let him go, if she could help it.

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><p><strong>I was going to write the dinner, but I wanted the immediate 'Becker out of surgery' moment, and so I figured it wouldn't be realistic if he got up and went on a date like, the next day. I could write it set a week or two later though in a one-shot? Hmm, not sure really. It might be terrible.<strong> **:)**

**Anyways, thank you all for reading and reviewing this! Nothing else makes me smile like when I get a lovely review! I'd be forever grateful if you could spare a couple of seconds for one last review?**

**Thank you!**


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